Creator Guide: Companion Creature Design

This tutorial teaches creators how to design balanced companion beasts for Saints Buddy Battles, configure elemental typings, assemble level-up learnsets, and establish evolution chains.

1. Creature Concept & Base Stat Balancing

Each creature possesses 5 core base statistics that govern turn-based battle scaling:

$$\text{Base Stat Total (BST)} = \text{HP} + \text{ATK} + \text{DEF} + \text{SPD} + \text{SPC}$$

2. Elemental Typing & Affinity Matrix

Assign either a single primary type or a dual-typing combo from the 6 core elements:

• Fire: Offensive burst damage; counters Nature and Ice.
• Water: High HP/DEF hybrid; counters Fire and Rock.
• Nature: Status inflictions and health drains; counters Water and Ground.
• Electric: High speed and paralysis modifiers; counters Water and Flying.
• Shadow: Critical strike power; counters Divine and Psychic.
• Divine: Healing, team wards, and holy strikes; counters Undead and Shadow.

3. Move Pools & Level-Up Learnsets

Creatures can equip up to 4 active moves during combat. Configure learnsets in CreatureDefEditorPanel.tsx:

typescript
export const InfernofoxLearnset = [
  { level: 1,  moveId: 'scratch',       type: 'Normal', power: 40, acc: 100 },
  { level: 7,  moveId: 'ember',         type: 'Fire',   power: 40, acc: 100 },
  { level: 16, moveId: 'flame_wheel',   type: 'Fire',   power: 60, acc: 95  },
  { level: 24, moveId: 'will_o_wisp',   type: 'Fire',   power: 0,  acc: 85  }, // Burn status
  { level: 36, moveId: 'fire_blast',    type: 'Fire',   power: 110, acc: 85 }
];

4. Evolution Chains & Shiny Variants

• Evolution Triggers:
  • Level Threshold: Evolves automatically upon reaching target level (e.g. Lv 28).
  • Elemental Stone: Requires applying an evolutionary catalyst item (e.g. fire_stone).
  • Trade Holding Item: Evolves when traded to another player while holding a specific relic.
• Shiny Variants: Every creature automatically receives a shiny palette shift. When encountered in the wild, the engine rolls an RNG seed: $$P(\text{Shiny}) = \frac{1}{4096} \quad (\text{or } \frac{1}{512} \text{ with Prismatic Charm})$$